WHY was the colt idea brought up again? How many games will teams play? Who’s the sponsor? Who is the governing body? Just a few of the questions than need answering.

NINE weeks. That’s all it’s been. Nine weeks since the three unwise monkeys sat there at Hampden selling us Scottish football’s new dawn, all unity and smiles and job done back-slapping.

It’s hard to believe.

Not that it was only nine weeks ago. Just that it’s taken THIS long for their incompetence to see the whole thing thrown under a bus.

And to think there are people out there who said the leadership of Scottish football couldn’t get any worse, eh?

We’re fewer than 10 games from the end of the season and no one has the first idea of what they’re doing next campaign.

How many games will they play, who’s the sponsor, what division will they be in, who is the governing body, is the TV deal worth the paper it is written on?

Despite all the warnings at the time that it wouldn’t fly, they ran off the end of a cliff with their 12-12-18 solution to league reform.

And right now they’re careering to earth like Wile E Coyote strapped to a 10-ton Acme weight.

Their capacity to self-destruct is limitless. And nothing exemplifies that more than David Longmuir’s performance last week.

A more solid type you couldn’t hope to meet.

The SFL chief seemed to have manoeuvred himself perfectly ahead of his SPL opposite number Neil Doncaster when it came to being a credible leader.

Right up to the point when he pulled the pin from the grenade with his Old Firm colt teams proposal – and blew himself and the whole process into little fragments.

Four days on, I’m still trying to work out what he was thinking. What his motivation was. I remember speaking to him at Hampden between Christmas and New Year, right around the time he had lobbed his 16-16-10 league proposal into the mix.

He floated the idea of Old Firm reserves back then – why, exactly, are we calling them colt teams? – and it was kicked out on day one.

Privately he admitted he knew it would but he just wanted to light a fire under the debate.

At least, though, he knew then what his clubs didn’t want. Same last week when he gave the SFL members a deadline of Tuesday to choose between a lower tier of 18 or two divisions of 10 teams.

I’m told the responses of those who hit “reply to all” were, ahem, illuminating – but again he got the message. No to a 10-10.

So what does he do next? Yup. Says to them the way forward is a 10-10 including the Old Firm reserves. He’s bowing to the only one of his 30 members who doesn’t have a vote and another club who aren’t even in his organisation.

And simultaneously he’s p**sing off almost every other chairman and chief exec in the country?

He says it was just an honest strategy document but he’s more than smart enough to know what the reaction would be so you still have to ask: WHY?

Any trust, any kudos he had earned, have gone. Except within the corridors of Rangers and Celtic. Which is maybe what he wanted all along, who knows?

But it tells us one thing.

If we ever get round to creating a new body, the recruitment process should start now.

There’s not one person left in a position of power with the credibility to lead it. They’re ALL tainted. And that goes for SFA chief Stewart Regan as well.

As for the Colts’ idea? Yesterday I was in Inverness for a Highland derby between two teams who could both end up in Europe this season, less than 20 years after being admitted to the Third Division.

That’s the kind of dream that Longmuir’s plot is set to deny.

If they had gone for Old Firm Lite back in 1994 then yesterday might never have happened.

Who’s to say a forward-thinking community club like Spartans couldn’t be in the same position?

Spain gets quoted as a comparison, we are told how well the system works with Barca and Real Madrid’s second strings.

Really? Okay, let’s do what Spain do then – a top league of 20. Only two teams can win it, right? But no, apparently that’ll give us too many meaningless games.

Cake and eat it, anyone?

If they want to debate it honestly, let’s debate it – instead of trying to railroad through the garbage they’re trying to feed us with 12-12-18. We’re sick of hearing the apologists say: “Listen we know it’s not perfect, but ...”

And then going on to quote you all the positive things about it.

One governing body, an end to the self-interest of the Godforsaken SPL, a fairer distribution of wealth, fairer voting, more non-exec representation on a bigger board.

Sure, all of it’s good.

So why not just bloody do the good stuff? Why accept a flawed product? Just constitute a new governing body, split the money more evenly – then we can talk about what the best system is.

I spoke to one guy last week who’s on the periphery of the process.

He said if they conducted business in his high-pressure day job the way they did within the corridors of Hampden, the world would have to shut down.